All photos © Stephanie Munguia for Cheap Old Houses
If you tuned into Episode 3, you know that before Cristiana and Nick fell in love with their dream cheap old church, they checked out a sprawling mansion in Cambridge, NY. We had joked together about some of the silly renovations that had taken place in the house over the years, especially those that led to the smattering of bright white paint over a bunch of the slate mantels, including the one in the kitchen.
Although Cristiana and Nick weren’t the perfect buyers, we were determined to land this house in the right hands. So we were thrilled beyond words when Richard and Lucy decided to take a leap of faith on this awkward giant (we like to say the official term for the style is BIG WHITE BOX) and move their family to Cambridge, New York to make a little old house magic.
All photos © Stephanie Munguia for Cheap Old Houses
If you tuned into Episode 3, you know that before Cristiana and Nick fell in love with their dream cheap old church, they checked out a sprawling mansion in Cambridge, NY. We had joked together about some of the silly renovations that had taken place in the house over the years, especially those that led to the smattering of bright white paint over the slate mantels.
Although Cristiana and Nick weren’t the perfect buyers, we were determined to land this house in the right hands. So we were thrilled beyond words when Richard and Lucy decided to take a leap of faith on this awkward giant (we like to say the official term for the style is BIG WHITE BOX) and move their family to Cambridge, New York to make a little old house magic.
Go, team!!!!
To truly understand just how massive this house is, take a look at the “before” photo below. When we found the house, it was covered in vinyl siding, with cheesy plastic shutters that wouldn’t even cover the window, even if they were operable (they weren’t). There was a portico, probably from the 1980s, that was built of flimsy aluminum and was covered with dents and chips. It was throwing the proportions of the building WAY off, so it was an easy decision to remove it.
Removing vinyl siding is one of our favorite pastimes, and the opportunity to do it here was almost more than we could handle!
As per usual, most of the historic wood siding underneath was perfectly intact, and even gave us some clues about the history of paint colors used on the building. We found a palette of autumn hues under the siding — golds and browns, especially — so we leaned into that by choosing a new color palette that felt as once fresh, modern and totally period appropriate, while matching the gorgeous fall foliage covering the mountains behind the house. Dunn-Edwards DURA came through for us with a collection of colors that made this exterior sing!
As we’ve explained before, the Italianate style of architecture was all about mimicking nature and natural materials, so the colors were most often earth tones. If you saw in Episode 3 that we painted Cristiana and Nick’s church a rich, deep chocolate color to mimic brownstone, you already know all about this! The modern notion that Victorian houses were always bright, garish and polychromatic is an invention of the 1970s, believe it or not!
The parlor in this house didn’t need much save for a few aesthetic changes. So we took the opportunity to lean into Richard + Lucy’s love of mid-century modern furniture! As we often say, we feel strongly that when restoring a house, one should always preserve the bones of the house (anything affixed to the walls!). But when it comes to moveable furnishings, you should always express your own personal style! That’s how you make a house feel fresh, fun and alive.
Jennifer worked with Eternity Modern to furnish the inside of the parlor, selecting pieces in fun, primary colors that pop against the clean walls. We love how the streamlined nature of mid-century modern allows the showstopping features of the room (peep that slate mantel!!!!) to really shine.
We leaned heavily into art to make these designs work. And thankfully, some incredible and generous local artists stepped up to lend a hand. We want to give extra love to Leslie Parke and Miriam McClung, whose pieces were the icing on the cake in this house.
We had a little fun with the entryway, adding a fun sputnik chandelier by Kichler Lighting, which makes a huge statement! We think it’s totally fine to play around with accessorizing your house, using a mix of pieces from all different eras! The only rule to need to follow: if you LOVE it, it belongs in your house!
Our favorite part of this interior restoration is that we had to do very little to the bones of the house in order to make it shine again. While there had been some odd choices made over the years, none of them had threatened the integrity of the beautiful features in the home. It was our job to just clean them up and make them shine!
A group of amazing people and companies came together to make this kitchen happen! Shout out to Charleston Hardware for making the cabinets so fun, Café Appliances for the adorable fridge, and Leslie Parke for providing the beautiful painting above the mantel!
Of course, this wouldn’t be a cheap old house without a Frigidaire Flair! And we just HAD to keep it!
No one was going to leave the premises until that slate mantel was finally stripped!!!!
She can breathe again!
HUGE props to Modern Hill Furniture in Chicago, Illinois for being so amazing and helping us outfit this room! And this is the real deal! Modern Hill restores authentic mid-century modern furniture in their giant warehouse. Visiting there is like landing in heaven. Which is exactly the vibe we wanted to create in Richard + Lucy’s bedroom!
Are you ready to have some fun?!! As you’ll notice in the “before” photo, the house had a bulky, mid-century addition on the side that seemed to be of no historical value and honestly, was a bit of an eyesore. Here you can see photos of it from the front (see it sticking awkwardly off the right hand side?) and from the side. Our initial plan was to scrap it, because we couldn’t fully restore the exterior of the building if this weird white box continued to scream, “hey, look at me instead of the pretty building!”
The inside matched the outside. Except for the fact that you could play miniature golf on the floor, it wasn’t adding much use or value to the house.
Enter: Scott. Scott has always been perplexed about this house, given its boxy, awkward proportions. He had long suspected that there was more to the story of the house than initially meets the eye. In fact, when we found a little bit of fire damage up in the attic, he concluded that the house likely had a mansard roof back in the day, which would have balanced out the boxiness! Isn’t that fun?
All that to say, Scott was itching to see what clues this dang addition was hiding, and one day during lunch he convinced Ethan to start peeling back the layers with him. (this was a rogue move, not even remotely planned, and we’re still not sure if our production company loves us or hates us for it!) The opening of this Pandora’s box lasted for hours, and we ended up cancelling all the “real” work we had planned for that day.
I’m squinting. I’m starting to breathe heavily. I’m sorry, but are those… SPINDLES!?!?!!?
PEOPLE OMG THERE IS AN ORIGINAL VICTORIAN PORCH HIDING UNDERNEATH!!!!!!
TA-DA!!!! Can you?! Can you EVEN?! Can you believe that most other people — ourselves included, apparently! — would have just taken a sledgehammer to the addition and thrown it in the dumpster?
Here’s another cool thing. While only this section of the porch has survived, we found a post all the way at the other end of the house, indicating that it originally wrapped around the entire front facade. Here I am with one of our producers, Ann Marie, holding a rendering we made for Richard and Lucy to reference if they ever decide to rebuild the porch.
Our deepest gratitude to architectural designer and fellow champion of old houses, Scott Reed, for his invaluable insight and guidance on so many aspects of honoring this building’s era and history. Thank you to the tiny-but-mighty design and build team, lead by interior designer Jennifer Salvemini, who worked hard to celebrate the building’s history and character.
It takes a village, and we’re so fortunate to work with a team of preservation-minded contractors, designers, fabricators, and more to achieve our vision.
Design & Build
Kent Hansen
Hansen Complete Remodeling
General Contractor
Brian Crabb and Ruth Storc
Design Producers
David Figueroa
Build Producer
Edin of Edo’s Home Renos
Painting
James Waterhouse
Jack of All Trades
Production & Filming
Ann Lewis Roberts, Jenny Daly,
Jon Beyer, and Bill Gaudsmith
Executive Producers
Phil DePietro
Line Producer
Steve Bowler
Supervising Producer
Cory Dross
Director of Photography
Mike Spencer
Audio Mixer
Kathryn Zavistak, Alex Nam, Greg Corwin,
Carlos Escoto, Kirk Murray, and Dan Tivin
Editors
Nick Batchelder, Paul Celello,
Owen Goldstoff, and Alec Wright
Production Assistants
Amy Goodfriend-Nussbaum
Clearance Supervisor
Kelly Taylor
Post Production Coordinator
Victoria Chiaro Snyder
Executive in Charge of Production
Erika Smith
Supervising Story Producer
Ann Marie Lizzi
Segment Producer
Bill Keller
Camera Operator
Tori Dunn
DIT
Kurtis Endreson
Production Manager
Jon Earnest, Kevin Lowe,
and Sam Rubin
Story Producers
Andi Nunez
Post Production Supervisor
Gregory McClintock and Goga Sordia
Assistant Editors
Elizabeth Stephenson
Associate Producer
With our sincere thanks to our incredible partners:
Dunn-Edwards DURA
Paint
Hoagland Property Management
Landscaping
Proven Winners
Flowers and plants
MSI Surfaces
Countertops
Vintage Tub & Bath
Kitchen fixtures
Kichler Lighting
Light fixtures
Hawkins New York
Housewares
lighttexture
Kitchen lighting
Don’s Moving & Storage
Logistics
Café Appliances / GE
Appliances
Charleston Hardware Co.
Hardware
Modern Hill
Mid-century furniture
Eternity Modern
Furniture
Juniper Print Shop
Art prints
FrameUSA
Art frames
Masaya
Porch furniture
Casper
Mattress & bedding
Miriam McClung, artist
Artwork
Leslie Parke, artist
Artwork
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